Jumper

Book Review. Jumper told about David Rice, an adolescence boy who forced to be grown before his time when his mother left him in care of his abusive, alcoholic father. In a midst of his stress, he had discovered an ability to transported him elsewhere in an instant to any place as long as he remembered the place exactly. And by discovering so, he decided to leave his dad, went to New York City, and started a new life.

The book make light of the ability by introducing the ability right at the first sentence of the book. From there, the book could be roughly divided into three parts (in my opinion, anyway). Mystery (with a stench of Tragedy perhaps), in which Davy had to start a new life from scratch in New York City with no identity, no money, and no relatives whatsoever. This is the part where i came to hate Davy, since he often spent his time crying, angry, and whining about everything that had happened to him. Although of course, when your Mother left you in care of abusive, alcoholic and had a serious tendency to hit you with a belt-buckle for a slightest mistake father, AND almost got raped by three truck-drivers, you would most likely end up as negative as Davy, maybe worse. However, he had my love when he was shown that he loved books so much that in single scene, at one of his tantrum, he threw the book across the room, only to expressed his regret in doing so later on.

The second part was my favorite, a Drama, in which Davy found a solace in form of Millie Harrison, a college girl three years older than him. It took nearly a third part of the book, in my counting, to give way to a relationship between the two. At the end of this part, there's probably one of the best - if not the best - break-up scene i've ever seen or read in a long while (and i read a lot, seen a lot) that it almost made me cried. I had more connection with Davy in this part, since i saw myself the most clearly in him. He loved to read and often escapes to book to escape the social duties he found dreading and too judging for his taste. I was prefer my solitude as well, and small circle of friends, and often spent my weekend reading or dreaming rather than socializing. Moreover, i saw myself in him as well, in the sense that when he loved someone, he loved her for what she was, a solace, an oasis, close enough but never too close to demanding. Always there for comfort, but never there too much to infiltrate his inner privacy. I could read clearly that Millie Harrison is the perfect girl for him as my recent gf is the perfect girl for me. Therefore, when the break-up scene occurred, i felt Davy's distress, anger, and sadness because i know that that what was going to happen to me when i broke my heart. This part was also when his search for his long lost Mother came to fruition, and later, become the trigger to what would happened in the third part of the book.

Unfortunately, the third part, is the worst of all parts, when the book took into Action/Thriller. I skipped a lot of paragraphs doing the part, skimming his final confrontation with his nemesises (yes, plural) and his Dad. I had high hopes during the second part only to be smashed down by the cliche-ness of the third part. The author doesn't surprise its reader as well, by giving me, us, a nice wrap-up ending that satisfied all major characters. No surprises there, and the book ends in a flat note.

Jumper spawned a sequel which arrived nine years after the first, i just read several first paragraphs of the sequel and had decided to read something else instead. The film version of Jumper will hit the theater at early 2008. Well, actually, the film would only borrow the title and the 'jump' essential, in fact, Steven Gould was writing altogether new script for the film and would largely involving the government-conspiracy kind of thing.

See also:
- Jumper (film)